In this March 5, 2019, file photo, Christian Dawkins arrives at federal court in New York. Dawkins denied on Wednesday allegations that he paid a $2,500 bribe to then-University of South Carolina assistant Lamont Evans. He told a federal jury that the money was meant to pay expenses for the family of South Carolina basketball player P.J. Dozier, a top NBA prospect at the time. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig/AP)

An aspiring sports agent testified in his own defense Wednesday that he never bribed college basketball coaches — but he saw nothing wrong with paying players.

Christian Dawkins has already been sentenced to six months in prison for bribing the father of a college basketball prospect to attend the University of Louisville. Now Dawkins is on trial again for bribing coaches with the expectation they’d advise players to hire him once they turned pro.

Advertisement

But Dawkins insisted an alleged $2,500 bribe from him to then-University of South Carolina assistant Lamont Evans was actually meant to pay expenses for the family of South Carolina player P.J. Dozier, who at the time was a top NBA prospect. He testified that paying the coaches made no sense because they have little influence over potential pros who attend college for one academic year before departing for the NBA. Paying players and family of players, on the other hand, is a key part of the basketball business model, he said.

“We definitely were paying players, yes. I don’t think anything is wrong with paying players — I have nothing to hide from that standpoint,” Dawkins said in Manhattan Federal Court.

In 2017 Dawkins set out to start his own company, LOYD Management. The person bankrolling the project was Jeff D’Angelo, who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. D’Angelo relentlessly pushed for Dawkins and his business partners to bribe coaches, Dawkins testified. He claimed he tried to dissuade him from the idea, saying it was “idiotic.”

“There’s no need to pay a college coach because these players are coming into college with agents. This idea that it’s an amateur world is not real," he said.

Dawkins was caught on a wiretap saying the money would be better spent at a strip club in Las Vegas.

“If we’re going to waste money let’s at least spend it on something that’ll be enjoyable for us,” Dawkins said.

Dawkins is on trial alongside former Adidas consultant Merl Code, who was also sentenced to six months in the previous trial. The cases have highlighted the seedy underbelly of the NCAA, where agents, reps from apparel and shoe companies, coaches and other hangers-on seek to ingratiate themselves with future professional players and their families.